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What is a CSV file?

Modified on: Wed, 22 Jun, 2016 at 9:46 AM

A CSV is a comma separated values file, which allows data to be saved in a table structured format. CSVs look like a garden-variety spreadsheet but with a .csv extension (Traditionally they take the form of a text file containing information separated by commas, hence the name).

If you are experiencing issues with the upload of your file, it may be due to a CSV formatting error within the file.

Please see below for some useful information regarding CSVs.

CSV Format

Each record is one line - Line separator may be Carriage Return or Line Feed

Fields are separated with delimiter (commas or tabs are supported)

Leading and trailing white spaces are
ignored - Unless the field is delimited with double-quotes in that case
the white space is preserved

Embedded commas - Field must be delimited with double-quotes

Embedded double-quotes - Embedded double-quote characters must be doubled, and the field must be delimited with double-quotes

Embedded line-breaks - Fields must be surrounded by double-quotes

CSV Best Practice

A good CSV will look like this:

Organisation ID,Name,Email

1186,Fred,fred@domain.com

1187,George,george@domain.com

Resulting in a table like this:

Organisation ID

Name

Email

1186

Fred

fred@domain.com

1187

George

george@domain.com

The first row is a header row that contains the names for the columns (note that this row is not mandatory)

The remaining rows are data rows that always contain the same number of fields.

Line endings use CRLF (Windows line endings) and the column fields are separated by the delimiter (a comma).

If a field contains a comma, a line ending or quotes then the field should be wrapped by double quotes. For example: Springfield "Nuclear Power" Plant would need to be "Springfield ""Nuclear Power"" Plant"